Leon Black on the Museum of Trendy Artwork’s movie profit on November 19, 2018 (photograph by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Photos)
A Democratic senator and rating member of the Senate Finance Committee is looking for a probe into the embattled financier and Museum of Trendy Artwork trustee Leon Black over funds he made to intercourse predator Jeffrey Epstein.
Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden accused the Inside Income Service (IRS) of failing to audit monetary transactions between the previous chief government of Apollo International Administration and Epstein. In a letter despatched final month to Trump-appointed IRS Commissioner Billy Lengthy, Wythe steered that an investigation by the company may have revealed that Epstein was not a monetary skilled, elevating questions on his shoppers’ willingness to pay him tens of millions of {dollars} for recommendation.
Black paid Epstein $158 million between 2012 and 2017 for alleged “tax ‘solutions,’” Wyden mentioned, even though Epstein “lacked any professional training or certifications in accounting or tax law.” The figures Epstein raked in beneath these companies, together with $100 million in “ad hoc” funds from Black, far exceeded “expected compensation” for tax planning companies, the letter alleges.
Days after the letter was despatched, Trump eliminated Lengthy as IRS commissioner and changed him with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Black stepped down as chairman of MoMA’s board of trustees in 2021 amid backlash to studies of his monetary relationship with Epstein. Over 150 artists, together with Nan Goldin and Michael Rakowitz, signed a letter revealed in Hyperallergic urging the museum to chop ties with Black. He’s nonetheless on the board, in line with MoMA’s web site. The museum didn’t reply to a request for remark.
In 2023, Black was accused of raping a minor who had a developmental incapacity in Epstein’s townhouse, a cost he vehemently denied. He has additionally confronted two further accusations of sexual misconduct, which he additionally denied.
“They spent several months reviewing 60,000 documents and interviewing more than a dozen individuals. It concluded that Mr. Black had not engaged in any wrongdoing, had no awareness of Epstein’s criminal activity, and all of the fees paid were for legitimate tax, estate, and philanthropy planning services and were vetted and approved by outside law firms,” Black’s spokesperson mentioned.
Nevertheless, Wyden claimed Epstein’s work for Black was bereft of official enterprise contracts in his July letter.
“Perhaps most glaring, the majority of the payments from Black to Epstein, approximately $100 million, were made on an ‘ad hoc’ basis without any form of written contract or business services agreement,” Wyden mentioned in his letter.
A few of this cash was allegedly used to fund Epstein’s actions within the US Virgin Islands, the place the billionaire owned a personal island that he allegedly utilized in his intercourse trafficking operation. Black, in a settlement, paid $62.5 million in change for his launch from future authorized actions associated to his relationship with Epstein within the US Virgin Islands.
